


Take A Break Sometimes

by XtaticPearl



Series: The Parker-Stark-Rhodes-Hogan-Potts-Danvers Family [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dad!Tony, Fluff, Gen, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Smol Son!Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 20:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9090160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: Tony comes back from a business tour and finds Peter crashing on his couch. Interesting.





	

The first thing Tony noted when he entered the base floor was a crumpled pack of Cheetos. There were only three people Tony knew who even liked Cheetos, an anomaly in its existence yes, and the genius was pretty sure that none of them would throw a crumpled Cheetos cover in the middle of the floor.

Or that any of them would ever set foot into the Compound ever again, really.

“Friday, who’s our junk trasher?” he asked even as he conveniently moved around the cover, ignoring the annoyed sigh of Happy from behind, and started towards his floor.

“That would be Mr. Parker, boss,” the AI replied and Tony raised an eyebrow at the nearest camera in surprise but didn’t falter as he got into the elevator and smirked at Happy when he entered behind him with cheetos-dust coated fingers and a scowl.

“Hmmm, spidey-boy’s here,” Tony mused with an amused expression and Happy shot him an alert look.

“Did we hear about anything from Queens?” the man asked with the grudging concern he had adopted after the inclusion of the teenager into Tony’s circle.

“Well, no, Queens seems to be intact and alive as of today,” Tony shrugged and tilted his head back to shoot Happy a bland look, “Think it’s about the scholarship?”

“I dunno, the kid seems pretty set in that area,” Happy offered and Tony nodded thoughtfully, already familiar with Peter’s level of intelligence.

“Let’s find out then,” he quipped and strode out when the elevator came to a stop, Happy hot on his heels. 

The sight that greeted them on entering Tony’s floor though was pretty strange. There was a lump on his couch, a lump covered in red Iron Man blankets and a high school kid sitting on the companion chair, furiously typing on a laptop with one hand as the others rummaged into a crinkling Cheetos packet.

“Aha! So you’re the junk trasher,” Tony commented and raised his eyebrows when the kid jerked pretty violently and sent orange balls of fluff flying everywhere.

“Shit!” the kid exclaimed and looked at his laptop that was almost falling down and scrambled to catch it, smearing it with orange dust. Tony winced a bit sympathetically but stood stock still.

“Shit _shit_ , hi, ummm, sorry,” strange kid with cheeto fingers said and shook his head as thought rejecting a thought before continuing, “Peter, you, shit.”

“Not really. _Tony_ , me, shit,” Tony corrected and pointed to himself before looking away and glancing at the lump on his couch, “Uh, what’s that?”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s Pete-Spider -”

“Right,” Tony said with a skeptical glance at the bumbling kid before walking forward and poking the lump with his index finger.

“Hey, hey, Pete, c’mon, come outta your cocoon caterpillar,” Tony poked again and gestured at the other kid to help. That got the boy into motion and he came forward to shake Peter with renewed force.

“Wha- What’s happ- Hey, Mr. Stark!” Peter got up with bleary eyes that blinked fast to try and become alert, looking like a bundled puppy that got entangled in blankets.

“Cool sheets,” Tony quipped before taking a step back and looking between Peter and his friend, “Though I’m surprised about their location and, well, yours too. What’re you doing here?”

“Nothing,” Peter said and Tony caught the tad too quick reply suspiciously, “Nothing, just, you said I could come down here when, uh, you know, I wanted to?”

Tony knew a lie when he saw one. He had learnt to identify it quite closely and precisely, and after the events between him and a certain -

 _No_ , he thought and pushed back that thought, _focus on the kid._

“Sure,” he said calmly with a casual shrug and eyed the other boy, “Well, I guess you and your buddy can just stay here for a while. I gotta go get changed. You guys want anything to eat?”

“No, no it’s -”

“Pizza sounds good”

Peter shot a dry look at his friend but Tony just snorted in amusement at the kid’s answer and nodded.

“Pizza sounds good,” he nodded and placed the order with Friday before slipping out to take a shower and change. Something told him that he would need to be more comfortable for a long night ahead.

—

“So..”

“Mhm?” Peter hummed around his crust and Tony looked up from his own slice, eyes landing on Peter and his friend, Leeds.

“How’s school?” he offered and rolled his eyes when he got a pointedly disbelieving look from Peter, “Yeah, okay, it was a lousy attempt anyway. But hey, you wanna spill what’s going on?”

“What’s going on? Nothing’s going on,” Peter mumbled around his pizza bite and carefully avoided looking at Tony. With a raised eyebrow, Tony turned to stare at Leeds pointedly.

“I will give you the latest prototype of StarPhone XI right now if you tell me what’s screwed up,” he said and Peter’s eyes shot up but Leeds promptly opened his mouth.

“Pete flunked physics,” Leeds said immediately and Peter shot him an utterly betrayed look that Leeds returned with a defensive shrug, “What? It’s a prototype! You’d have sold out too!”

Tony was…surprised. That was the last thing he had been expecting. Scratch that, it wasn’t even on the list of things he was expecting. He knew smart people and Peter was one of the smartest he could find in the vicinity. The kid was practically a sponge and Tony, with his own reluctance for being a mentor to youngins, had found it easy to take on the role for him. Not to mention, the kid was quite easily on the way to break even Tony’s record of being a prodigy. Things didn’t seem to add up, he decided and looked at Peter.

“That’s…” Tony searched for an appropriate word and Peter shot him a narrowed glare.

“Look, just drop it, okay? It’s fine,” he huffed and Tony frowned a bit.

“No, it’s not. It’s an anomaly,” he scoffed and Peter stiffened, making Tony re-evaluate his words and explain better, “I mean, you’re clearly on part with a genius brain and there’s really no way you’d fail _physics_ , c’mon. If anything I’m surprised you’re even taking exams at high school anymore. That’s practically like counting cards in a table of novices.”

Peter blinked at him and Tony snapped his mouth shut but shrugged in deference to his words. He noted that Leeds looked stunned for a minute, pizza halfway into his mouth before he smirked with an impressed look and continued munching.

“That’s..huh,” Peter cleared his throat and Tony felt the awkwardness settle in the air. Tony felt the odd urge to scratch the nape of his neck and decided to stuff his mouth instead.

“Friday said that you were at Tokyo?” Peter said after a few minutes of silence and Tony nodded, thankful that the silence had broken.

“Yeah, meeting with the Fujikawas,” he said on a swallow and smirked at the interested look on Peter’s face, “Yeah, the same Fujikawas you’re thinking about.”

“Awesome,” the kid said with the first look of excitement since Tony had found him on the couch, so Tony went on a ramble about the new tech that they were planning to collaborate with the Japanese giant. Leeds didn’t butt into the conversation much except for dropping cool rare information that was in no way related to the Fujikawas but Tony liked the enthusiasm of the kid and they talked through their large pizza.

It was late when Leeds left, a new StarkPhone in hand as promised and he shot Tony a dorky salute that Tony replied with a pointed look before grinning. Peter didn’t look like he was leaving, so Tony didn’t ask much about it and walked back inside after having left Leeds in Happy’s safe hands.

“Hey, you want a lift back home or you’re gonna swing your way back?” Tony asked as he stretched and padded by the couch towards the kitchen to grab a drink of water.

“I -uh,” Peter hesitated and Tony eyed him calmly as he drank his water, waiting for Peter to complete his sentence, “I was hoping I could…crash here for tonight?”

“Really,” Tony observed and eyed Peter’s nervous body language, “Your aunt okay with it?”

Peter nodded quickly but Tony maintained his _don’t bullshit me_  look and the kid sighed before shrugging. 

“She, um, she might not know I’m here?” Peter said with the sentence ending in a question and Tony stared at him for a minute before huffing out a chuckle that led to Peter grinning sheepishly.

“So she might very well be hounding the cops to look for you,” Tony shook his head and walked over from the kitchen to the couch and offered Peter a bottle of water.

Peter looked at the bottle with momentary surprise before taking it but not drinking. “She’s used to it by now,” he said with a shrug and clarified at Tony’s surprised look, “Not the…failing thing. The late night out thing.”

“Ah” Tony nodded in understanding and nudged the boy’s leg to make him scoot before sitting down beside him, “So, wanna tell me who screwed you over?”

“How’d you know somebody screwed me over?” Peter asked with a surprised blink and Tony scoffed with an eye-roll.

“Spidey, please,” he said in an unimpressed tone, “like I said, you failing at physics is an anomaly. Besides, if you’d really failed, you would have been at home, working extra hours to make up for it. Seeing that you’re moping all over my couch -”

“I’m not moping,” Peter retorted but Tony spoke over him.

“- _moping in extreme_  all over my couch, clearly, somebody screwed you over,” Tony said and looked at Peter with an open look, “And seeing how you came here, and I’m not really good with silence, you might as well tell me.”

When Peter looked hesitant, Tony softened a bit.

“Tell you what,” he offered, “You tell me what happened and leave out the who. If you want I can tell you some of my worst days at MIT.”

“I doubt _you_  ever failed,” Peter snorted and Tony shook his head.

“It’s not just about academics sometimes,” he said quietly and Peter stared at him for a moment before sighing.

“There’s this teacher,” he began and Tony kept quiet as he heard Peter talk about a teacher who was insecure about him being smarter than the guy and finding solutions and methods that the guy didn’t agree with. It was the typical case of a hurt ego and Tony felt himself sighing when Peter spoke about how the guy had flunked him when he refused to stick to the prescribed solutions alone and tried something on his own.

“So basically your professor’s a dick,” Tony commented at the end of it and Peter nodded, albeit with a small grin.

“Well, basically I officially flunked,” he amended and ran a tired hand through his hair, “And now Aunt May’s gonna be upset and I’m gonna get fewer hours to do my..well, patrolling. And then they’re gonna rethink my scholarship and I _know_  that Aunt May’s banking on it and -”

“Breathe,” Tony said firmly and caught Peter’s gaze in a calm but confident one of his own, “Seriously, kid, just breathe.”

“I just…I’m kinda tired,” the teenager said in a small voice and Tony remembered the endless times when he had been in a similar position, having the burning need to prove himself to some unknown authority and feeling rejected and small for his faster brain. It was unfair, he knew that, but it was also the reality they lived in. Tony didn’t believe in sugar-coating things for a kid who was bound to face similar assholes later in life. It never helped, he knew that.

“Hey, tell you what, you take the guest room instead of the couch,” he said and Peter frowned at him.

“But I don’t - I should call Aunt May and -”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it, chill,” Tony waved it off with a hand and patted Peter’s shoulder, “Go get some sleep. Room’s to the left, second door.”

“Mr. Stark, I -”

“Tony,” Tony said with a small grin and Peter huffed out a surprised chuckle.

“Sure,” he nodded and stood up, “thanks…Tony.”

Tony watched the kid go and stayed on the couch for a long time after it. In the end, he pulled out his phone and settled down for a long chat with a guaranteed panicked May Parker. He promised to drop Peter off in the morning and endured some pointed remarks about calling sooner but in the end, he got off with a pretty easy permission.

If he checked up on Peter physically once and through Friday twice during the night, well, nobody had to know.

And if he were to invite projects from Peter’s school for the forthcoming Stark Expo, personally approving Peter’s and having a chat with his professor about how smart the kid was, well, nobody had to know that as well. Except for Pepper, who told him with an exasperated but fond look that offering an internship to Peter right away was jumping the gun.

She should have known better. If Tony offered Stark scholarships and internships to all schools in Peter’s vicinity after that, well, nobody questioned that.

Not even Peter, who made it a point to crash in his guest room from then on, instead of the couch. Of course, some things never changed and Leeds still left Cheetos covers on the floor.

Tony was happy with letting Happy handle that bit of pseudo parenting. 

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned for more fics in this collection! Feedback please <3


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